Improvement in erasive-tablet holders



Patented Oct. 19, 1875.

D. M. SUMERS. Erasive Tablet Holdr. N0.I68.850.

8/ r ...w V1 p N. PETERB, PNOTO-LIYHOGRAPHER, WLSMNGTON D C DANIEL M. SOMERS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AS SIGNOR T PATENT DFFICE.

LAND, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN ERASlVE-TABLET HOLDERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 168,850, dated October 19, 1875; application filed I eptember 16, 1875. i

I To all whom it mag concem:

In the accompanying drawings, where like letters indicatelike parts,are represented in several views, the principal construction and various modifications of my improved device, as will be fully and specifically set forth in the following detailed description.

The invention relates to holders adapted to receive and protect the flat erasive tablet of commerce; and consists of a case or holder adapted to cover and protect the same, and which is provided with a means for projecting the erasive tablet for use at either end of the holder.

It has long been customary to protect erasive tablets by a suitable covering, which, While preventing their being soiled, afforded a handle or hearing for the hand to assist in their manipulation. Such covering has, however, been made of paper, cloth, or wood permanently fixed upon the surface of the eraser, thus requiring to be cut away as the eraserbody is reduced by use, or wholly permitting its economic consumption, while in no case entirely protecting the end of the tablet when not in use.

My improved device is designed to remedy these defects; and to that end consists, primarily, ofa liattubeof dimensions suited toinclose the standard or other sizes of erasive tablets,

in such manner as to allow said tablet to play freely therein, which movements are governed by apin or stud projecting from the tablet through a slot or opening, A,.in one side of the case or holder, in which it moves longitudinall y, to project the tablet beyond the end of said holder. The tablet is, preferably, sup ported in a sleeve or hollow piston, 0, into whose open end it may be easily inserted and withdrawn. The said sleeve 0 will usually be provided with an interior supporting-block, D, of wood or metal, into which the actuating pin or stud is inserted. The tablet may, how- I ever, be supported directly upon the block D,

which will then be provided with tenons projecting into suitable recesses in the erasive tablet, as in Fig. 4. Into this block D a thumbpiece, E, which may be astud or pin, or a screw, if preferred, is inserted, and, beingprovided with a button or plate at its outer end, serves as a means for reciprocating the tablet, and thus moving it out and into the tube, as is apparent from an inspection of the drawing. The form of a screw is preferred, since it provides a ready means for its securement to the tablet; but a rivet or a nail, which may be forced in the tablet, is not impracticable. When different kinds or qualities of tablets, as B B, are protected in this same holder, it will have both its ends open, as in Figs. 1 to 6, inclusive, when the hollow piston G or the block D will support or carry a tablet at each of its ends, and the long slot A be of such a length as to permit either tablet to be projected to its fullest extent at its appropriate end. Where one tablet only is thus to be held and protected, the rear end of the holder may be closed, as in Figs. 7 and 8, which otherwise show the construction above explained; but where the article is provided with its tablet permanently secured, as by a rivet or nail, which for convenience is inserted in the tablet before it is introduced in the holder, the said holder will have its slot A continued through the front edge of the faceplate, as in Fig. 5.

It may also be expedient to omit the piston O and block D altogether, and attach the operating thumb'piece E directly to the tablet, as in Fig. 9; and in order to facilitate the ready movements of the tablet the bottom face of the holder may be roughened to atthrda bearing. for the fingers. A good means for this purpose is found in the raised lettering shown in Fig. 2, though corrugations, as in Fig. 6, or any similar expedient, may be resorted to, and the face of the thumb-piece may also be roughened in any well-known manner for the same'purpose.

When the device is held in the hand, with its bottom resting upon the fingers, the thumb will consequently lie upon the thumb-piece E, and by a proper amount of pressure, the

O ORESTES CLEVE- roughened bottom surface affording the requisite bearing, the rubber may be thrust forward and projected a suitable distance for use.

When the holder is provided with a sleeve or hollow piston, O, the tablet may be readily inserted thereon or detached therefrom, thereby adapting this holder tobecome a permanent article of desk furniture, which may be supplied with its tablets at pleasure.

What I claim, therefore, is t 1.. An erasivetablet holder consisting of a flat tube provided with a sliding base-block armed with a sleeve, substantially as described.

2. An verasive-tablet holder having an interior sliding block, an actuating thumb-piece,

and a roughened exterior surface, substantially as and for the purposes described.

3. An erasive-tablet holder having an openended slot, in which the thumb-piece slides, whereby it is adapted to receive a tablet provided with a permanently-attached actuating thumb-piece, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof Ihave signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

DANIEL M. SOMERS. Witnesses:

ALFRED H. GARDNER, A. L. MUNsoN. 

